Agents of Shield: At the Heart
by Aorta EMT
Summary: Phil Coulson's next target is a super human who has the power to steal someone's heart-literally. Is the girl killing people on purpose, or is she struggling to keep her power at bay? Coulson is determined to find out, but when he launches his agents, they find out more than they bargained for-will they make it out alive?
1. Chapter 1

_Seattle, October 26th 2013 _

Cava pushed her way through the crowd, trying her hardest not to let her skin touch another human being. She reached a hand up and brushed at the bangs of her shaggy brown hair, attempting to get the mess out of her eyes, but it fell right back in her face. And even though it had been growing out, it was still so short that most people thought she was a boy.

She listened to her heart beat, its rate quickening. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a man pulling a knife out of his pocket, and moving towards her. Adrenaline pumped through her body, and she turned to face the man now plunging towards her with the knife, a crazed look in his eyes. .

~~##~~

_Five minutes earlier. . ._

Agent Phil Coulson stood outside of a cafe, surveying the crowd beside his partner, May. The two held a cup of coffee each, but neither even took a sip as they watched the crowd in seach of one face.

Vena Cava was a point of interest to S.H.I.E.L.D, not because her name was exotic, but for her unusual powers. The identification photos that Skye had dug up for them weren't the best-and the info on her didn't even give them a current residence.

"Is she homeless or what?" Skye said over the radio earpieces that the whole team had. "Fitz? Simmons? Do either of you guys have anything on your. . electro-thingy-ma-jig?"

Simmons shortly replied over the radio, the scientist instantly launching into teacher-mode. "Yes. Barely. The electrocardiogram is picking up traces of energy deprivation and absorption, and abnormal tachycardia rhythm. . ."

"Meaning?" Skye replied.

"Meaning," Ward interrupted grumpily over the radio. "We're getting close."

"Stay sharp everyone," Coulson muttered, finally taking a sip of his now cold coffee. "We're just about-"

Suddenly, a woman in the crowd screamed, pointing to two people wrestling-one apparently attempting to slit the other's throat; and on the ground beside the pair was a lifeless man. The woman knelt beside her husband, sobbing hysterically.

"He's had a heart attack! He's dead!"

Inside of an internet cafe a block away, Fitz and Simmons did their best to look like they were on Facebook rather than pinpointing one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s targets. Simmons whispered to the others, "We've got an isolated case of complete cardiac arrest-there's no electrical activity at all in this heart! And there's massive energy absorption in another nearby: Keep an eye out for our girl!"

Coulson nodded, he and May walked towards the collasped man, now moving purposefully. They almost had her.

~~##~~

As soon as the man beside them collapsed, Cava felt a surge of power go through her body, her heart pounded and her muscles gained superhuman strength. The man attacking her had grabbed her bag and tossed it aside, but now he dragged her into the alley and tried to shove her to the ground.

Instead, Cava did a backflip and landed on her feet, in the position she had taught herself with her own special fighting style: Knees bent, hands in front of her face. She wished she had her gloves, bare-fist fighting took a tole on her poor hands. Nevertheless, as the crazed man dove at her, baring his knife before her, she grabbed his wrist and jammed it upward.

May rounded the corner into the alley while Coulson knelt beside the heart attack victm, laying on his back on the ground. Pressing two fingers against the man's neck, he confirmed his teammates' theory. "No pulse. He's dead."

Back in the alley, Cava had kneed the man in the stomach, quickly followed with an attack by May, who ripped the man off of her and slammed him into the ground, where he remained, unconscious. "Are you o-" She began to ask Cava, not expecting the girl to attack her, but she barely deflected the high kick that the teen threw at her.

_She's fast! _May thought, not hesitating in going on the offensive.

Cava's blood was boiling. Her heart beat with the extra electrical activity she had absorbed through the man that now lay in the middle of the sidewalk, dead. Her pulse was insanely fast-150 beats per minute, well above the norm even for children, whose hearts regularly beat at a higher rate than adults.

"Found our girl!" May exclaimed over the radio, and Ward instantly responded from his position.

"Where?"

"Alley by Coulson's post." May swept a leg across the ground, hoping to topple the adrenalized Cava, but it was no use. The girl slammed her fist down into May's thigh, but the more experienced fighter didn't even flinch at the pain this caused-even though she felt her entire leg quake. _No teen could punch that hard. _She thought to herself, then glanced up for just a fraction of a second, over Cava's head as Ward came running down the alley, silently.

The tiny movement of May's dark eyes alerted Cava of the enemy behind her, she turned on the large man and threw a punch at him. Ward was slightly surprised Vena Cava had lasted that long in a fight against some guy on the street _and_ May-but he wasn't about to go easy on her just because she was a kid.

"Whoa, kid's got some spunk." Skye laughed over the radio, watching them from video camera feeds in her van.

"Yeah," Ward grunted, dodging the menagerie of moves that Cava threw at him, many connecting with surprising heaviness for the girl's small, thin body.

Fitz crackled over the radio. "And her vitals are off the charts! Pulse is 150, Blood pressure is 170 over 110, and respirations are twenty five a minute!"

"Whoa. I'm guessing that's a lot?" Skye muttered.

"It is a lot." Phil walked down into the alley, where May was now waiting for the right opening to land a finishing blow on the rampaging Cava. "And I want to know why."

Ward managed to get a hold of Cava's wrist as she attempted to land a killing punch on his solar plexis. "You're getting slower." Ward noted, quickly twisting her arm around her back, forcing her to her knees.

"Now," Phil walked up and knelt before the sweating, panting girl. "I want some answers. What exactly is it that you did back there?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Cava said with vehemence, her brown hair that feathered onto her cheeks pasted to her face. Her complexion was rapidly losing its color, turning to a pale gray as her heart slowed down to normal, then lower. "I donno whatchu wan' wi' me. . ." She began to slur. The electrical activity in her heart was plunging as the pumping organ exhausted both the energy it had taken from the man laying on the street, now being revived by paramedics, and its ability to create its own.

"Pulse is plunging dangerously low! Almost no electrical activity~!" Simmons exclaimed. Cava suddenly slumped forward in Ward's grip, completely losing consciousness as her heart slowed to a complete stop.

Suddenly Ward dropped Cava and the girl slumped to the ground.

"What's the matter, Ward?" Phil asked, looking concerned as his fighter rubbed his chest; then all those present raised their hands to their hearts.

"What. . .the. . .hell?" Ward muttered, glaring at the girl lying unconscious on the ground. "I hate to admit it but. . ."

"She's stealing electrical power from your hearts." Fitz explained, eyeing the electrocardiograms of all the team and Cava. "But not much. It's not as massive as before. . .Oh! Pulse is returning to normal in all of you!" He stated just as the pain in their chest diminished to nothing and Cava blinked her eyes open, heart now beating of its own accord.

"Wha. . .?" She asked no one in particular. What was she doing? Her body hurt; she felt heavy.

"May. Tranquilizer." Phil ordered, and the addressed plunked a syringe, thick needled and heavy with liquid, into his hand.

"Wha're you doin'?" Cava muttered sleepily, trying to stand but unable with weakened legs.

"Helping you," Phil answered, plunging the syringe into her neck. The girl gasped, eyes widening momentarily and muscles tensing, before her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell backwards.

Cava listened to her heart beat, the incessant noise that accompanied her everywhere, that was her only friend, the only consistency in her life. She felt the drug crawl through her body, reaching her heart and slowing the muscle down until it spread through her, numbing her and casting her into deep, deep sleep.

**We're getting places! Stick around to see what happens next-will Cava join Coulson's team, or will she rip their jet apart in a mass of crazy energy? **


	2. Chapter 2

Ward lowered Cava down onto a stretcher in the middle of Fitz and SImmons' lab. The two scientists immediately began examining the unconscious girl, while Coulson, May, Skye, and Ward stood in the background, observing their colleagues at work.

"So, does _anyone _understand what happened back there? I mean. . .she was kicking Ward's ass." Skye said, looking up at Ward, who merely rolled his eyes at the sassy young woman with her hand on her hip.

"She absorbed the electrical energy from the heart of the old man that collapsed back there." Simmons began, moving a tablet above Cava's chest and an x-ray image popped up.

"It sped up her heart rate and reflexes. . ." Fitz added.

"But no human's heart can sustain that level of energy for long."

"So when she ran out of the extra electrical energy, her heart ran completely stopped beating-"

"But she woke back up." Skye interjected, flipping her long brown hair over her shoulder. "How did it restart?"

"Your heart," Simmons began to explain, turning from her patient to face Skye and the others, all of whom were listening intently, "generates an electrical impulse to contract itself on its own, it doesn't depend on the brain to send an impulse to it, telling it to contract. But from what we've gathered. . ." She paused a moment to pull up a series of photos on the tablet, then walked over and held the screen up before the group.

"Vena Cava's heart can't create an impulse to start itself." Fitz joined his friend. He then gestured to an image of Cava's heart on the table. "You see this little black. . .smudge on top of it here? By the aorta?"

May nodded. "And?"

"That's an electrical device that can actually take electrical energy from other people's hearts and transfer it to her own via radio signals." Simmons said, containing the excitement she held at this incredible discovery of new techonology. "When she touches someone's skin, it can absorb more."

"But she was superhuman-even running on a high, she couldn't have been that strong." May mentioned.

"Yeah, she put up a fight against Ward even." Skye raised an eyebrow at the said agent.

"I will admit it was hard to get a hold on her, yes." Ward said evenly, containing the frustration rising up in him at Skye's cocky attitude. He'd like to see her try and fight Cava.

"The implant supposedly activates to its full absorbtion potential when it senses a raise in the adrenaline percentage in the blood." Fitz replied, "We aren't sure how yet, but it reduces the amount of lactase - waste products -" He explained at Skye's quizzical look, "In the muscles and boosts her strength by shutting down blood flow to unneeded organs and systems-the digestive system, the skin, etc."

"Is there a way to remove it?" Phil asked, curious whether they would actually need to remove the girl's implant.

Simmons's face fell. "Not without killing her at the moment, no. It's right inside the wall of the aorta-surgery would kill her."

Suddenly a moan issued from behind them; May and Ward instantly went to the table side. Cava was blinking her eyes slowly, looking blearily up at the two agents that had subdued her. Still bleary from the drug, she brought a heavy hand up and rubbed her eyes, turning on her side. "Where am I?" She asked quietly.

Coulson walked over, gesturing for Skye to follow. "You're in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D. You're safe."

Cava's eyes widened and she tried to stand up. "Didju. . .arrest me?" She mumbled, having a hard time getting her mouth to work.

May pushed her back down onto the table. "Take it easy. Your body has taken a lot of strain."

"But I gotta go. . ." Cava, again, tried to sit up.

When Ward moved to push her back down onto the table, Coulson held a hand up. "Let her." He watched as Cava swung her legs over the table and stood on the ground, facing them.

"Where am I?" She repeated her before question, looking around the lab.

Coulson forced a smile. "C'mon." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Let me show you around."

~~##~~

Coulson sat down across from Cava, who was expecting a long talk about how she had been sentenced to life in prison. The clean white couch that they sat upon was comfortable, curved so that since the two sat on oppposite ends, they could face each other.

Coulson slid a cup across the glass table top towards Cava.

"Here. Have a coaster." He stated, sliding a coaster across to her as well. "Do you know why you're here?" He asked, as she picked up the glass, tentatively sniffed its contents, and took a sip. Apple juice.

"No. . ." She answered quietly, setting her glass down on the coaster before her.

"You have a strange. . .power." Coulson chose his words carefully. "We can help you control it."

Cava looked down at her feet, memories of attacking innocent stand-byers, compleretly out of her own control with the power that she stole from others. . .She hated herself for it. All she didn was victimize people with her strength.

"You're going to have to give something in return," Coulson continued.

"What?"

Phil took a breath. "My team extraced you from Seattle; this is our jet. Will you work with us?"

Cava hesitated, so Coulson went on. "In return for your service here, you'lll get medical help, learn about your powers, get training, and protection from anyone who would want to use you."

"Use me?"

"Multiple organizations have shown a great - and dangerous - interest in the technology implanted in your heart. They'd stop at nothing to kidnap and experiment on you."

With a deep breath, Cava nodded. "Okay. Count me in!"

~~##~~

"Show me your fighting stance," Ward ordered, standing before Cava and Skye in the training room.

Cava bent her knees, raising her fisted hands before her face, with her elbows out.

Skye assumed a similar position, but had to check her stature and posture while Cava melted into the position naturally. "How can you do that so well?" Skye raised a quirky eyebrow at the younger girl beside her.

"Okay," Ward interrupted, assuming the same position as the two women before him, but with his hands open and palms flat, facing towards them. "Hit me with all you've got. Skye, you go first."

Cava watched as Skye pummeled Ward's hands until he signaled for her to stop by straightening his posture. She wore a superior smile and looked proud of herself as she brushed a strand of brown hair out of her face.

Ward moved in front of Cava, putting his hands in front of his body again. "Okay, Cava, your turn. Hit me as hard as you can."

"I can't." The teen argued.

"Why not?" Skye and Ward asked at the same time.

"Because. . ." She began. Ward's and Skye's expressions pried into her. "Because if I do, I'll kill you both."

Ward nodded. "Well. . ." He hesitated a moment. "Just. . .hit me as hard as you can without using your powers."

Cava nodded. "If my adrenaline gets up, I'll lose control. You have to knock me out before I spend all my energy or my heart will stop. Okay?"

"Okay." Ward stated.

"Please," Cava pleaded. "Don't let me hurt anyone."

Ward looked into her eyes to add weight to his words. "Don't worry. I won't. Now, hit me!" Cava drew her fist back, slamming it into Ward's palm so hard that he dropped his arm and rubbed his wrist.

"Damn." He muttered, "And that's without your powers?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey!" Skye jogged up to Cava, who was at the bar, getting some milk. "Hey. Can we talk?" She straightened her shirt, looking at the mellow girl who stood before her.

Vena Cava was a little shorter than Skye, about five foot seven. Her hair fell into her eyes in bangs that curved around her face and concealed her ears. Her clothes were loose and relaxed, the girl was almost the exact opposite of Skye in that she had no care about her appearance.

"I guess," Cava replied evenly, and sat down. Skye took a seat across from her, supressing a large grin, but she couldn't help but smile.

"So," Skye began, eager to learn about her newest team mate-for once, Skye wouldn't be the newb. "Do you like computers?"

"I guess, but I just mess around on the internet."

"Doing what?" Skye asked, hoping that maybe Cava was into computer science as much as her.

"Oh just posting stories and fan fictions online, for the most part, but I take practice tests and classes, too." Cava sipped her milk.

"Oh," Skye didn't do a very good job of hiding her slight disappointment as she looked down and broke eye contact with Cava. "What kinds of fanfics do you write?"

Cava's normally even complexion and expression broke into one of embarrassment; she blushed red and stuttered, "U-um, a lot of them are based on manga and videogames. . .but some are about the Avengers. . ."

Skye did a bad job of smothering a laugh. "Pfft. What? The Avengers? That's awesome."

A small smile appeared on Cava's face. "Really?"

In the hall, Coulson listened carefully to the conversation between the two girls. At the sound of Cava's Avengers fan fictions, his curiousity peaked and he just had to step out and ask: "Is Captain America a main character in any of them?"

~~##~~

"You can sleep here." Ward pointed Cava to one of the small bunk rooms on the jet. Each room was almost closet sized, with a small cot taking up half the space. In the rest there was a small bedside table, where a book rested with evacuation procedures for the jet.

"Okay," Cava nodded, glancing up at the large man beside her. He was starting to seem like an older brother to her.

"I bunk in the one right next to you, so if you need anything in the night, just knock on my door." Ward offered.

"Okay. . ." Cava repeated. "Um, I don't have any clothes to change into. . ."

"We have that taken care of." Phil walked in on the two. "Here." He handed her a bag, which she opened to reveal military-style clothing.

"Thanks," Cava forced a small smile onto her lips. Coulson nodded.

"Get some rest. We're stopping tomorrow to take a look around the S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier."

Cava tried to contain her sudden excitement at going to the same place where the Avengers had met. "Um, for what?"

"Fury wants to meet our newest member." Coulson winked.

Cava's face fell. "Um. . .he's not pissed at me is he?"

Coulson shook his head. "Nope. No worries. Now you should all get some rest."

~~##~~

Sometime in the middle of the night, when the entire team was asleep, Grant Ward's bunk door slid open with a quiet hiss. The tall man walked the few steps to Cava's door, then hesitated outside it. His hand hovered directly over the handle for a moment before he depressed the button and the door slid open.

From the moonlight streaming through the small window, Ward could see Cava fast asleep beneath the heavy white blankets on her bed. She was deeply asleep, he could tell she was dreaming by the way her eyes moved beneath her eyelids and the soft murmurs that came out of her mouth, words indestinguishable in real life, but all too clear in her dreams.

Ward smiled slightly, just for an instant, before it disappeared and, satisfied, he turned and left her room, going back to bed.

~~##~~

Cava lunged at Ward, aiming a punch at his shoulder. He easily blocked her, sweeping her fist aside and moving in to jab at her ribs. She countered with a swift tap on his left collarbone, and tried to step back from him.

Suddenly her feet were swept out from under her and she was staring up at the ceiling, breathless.

"Better," Ward said, "That's all for today." He stated. Then May said something over the intercomm;

"Get in your bunks. We're landing." She announced, and everyone went to their assigned bunks.

May lowered the jet and the wheels touched down flawlessly onto the runway of the helecarrier, the plane catching on the hook on the surface of the flying aircraft carrier and coming to a full stop. Phil Coulson's team lined up outside of the doors, and they opened, the staircase lowered to the ground so they shoulder exit.

The group filed out, Skye and Cava last in line. As she emerged onto the helecarrier, Cava expected to see ground surrounding them.

Instead, they were floating on clouds.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Skye said, stunned herself. "This is. . .whoa."

Ward rolled his eyes. "What did you expect, S.H.I.E.L.D's HQ to just be floating on the sea where anyone could bomb it?"

"We just landed a _jet _on their "HQ". I don't think it would be too hard to bomb their carrier on the sky." Skye shot back.

"Who's bombing what?" A deep voice asked, Ward and Skye straightened guiltily, while Fitz and Simmons smiled nervously, eager to talk to Fury as he approached them. "Who's the new kid?" Fury rose an eyebrow at Cava.

"Um, me." Cava said nervously.

"Nice to meet you," Fury offered his hand. "Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D."


	4. Chapter 4

"I like the plan," Simmons shrugged, "Just one teeny problem-how are we going to get her in?" She stressed the last sentence with heavy emphasis. Cava remained in the back of the conference room, watching the screen wearily as it displayed blueprints of a building.

"That's what we're working on," Ward muttered, "She's got to have some kind of weapon."

"That girl kicks ass," Skye gestured to Cava through a mouthful of donut, "Why does she need a weapon?"

"Skye's got a point," Coulson offered a small smile and nod to Skye, who pumped her fist. "I think we just need to work on getting Cava in there unseen."

Cava nodded as Coulson considered her, "I think I can manage that. All I have to do is go in, sneak into his office, and give him the pen, right?" She recapped the plan to make sure she'd gotten it right. Her first real mission from S.H.I.E.L.D, assigned to her directly from Fury himself, and she wasn't about to screw it up, nevermind whether they were using her or not. She wanted to be there for SOMETHING.

"It might not be that easy," May interjected, "Cavari's got guards in random placements around the building-we can't be sure where they are going to be."

"I can monitor radio signals and pinpoint a few positions," Skye offered up, shrugging a shoulder.

"Oh and," Fitz stepped forward with some device in his hand, "this is for you." He stated, approaching Cava, who nodded her compliance. Fitz opened up his hand and revealed a small pin with the S.H.I.E.L.D., emblem engraved into the steel.

Turning the pin in her fingers, she contemplated it for a moment before looking back up at Fitz quizzically.

"It's a back up," Fitz stated, "If - for whatever reason - you run completely out of power, it will sense the stop in your heartbeat and administer a shock strong enough to get you going again."

It took a moment for the words to sink in. "You mean. . ," Cava said softly, slowly, "if I get in a fight, then I won't have to kill one of you guys to start back up?"

Fitz, along with everyone else in the room, smiled. "Nope. And I've synced it so your heart will derive power from it, first, rather than another human."

Cava smiled, relieved. "Thanks." She wouldn't have to worry about killing her teammates, she thought to herself as she pinned it to her shirt.

~~##~~

Ward slammed a punch right into the guard's teeth, feeling them buckle under his knuckles as the guard fell to the floor, unconscious. "Cava, you back there?" He asked.

"Yeah!" The girl replied, gripping the pen she was to plant in Marco Cavari's office in a white-knuckled grip. "I'm glad I didn't end up having to come in alone," she muttered as a few guards came running at them. Ward grabbed one by the front of his shirt and slammed him into the wall, muttering questions to him quietly but with vehemence.

Cava tucked the pen into her pocket to free her hands as the other guard came at her. Adrenaline rushed into her and she felt her heart rate go up. Shooting a punch at the man's shoulder, she felt her knuckles pop from the sudden pressure as they contacted with the man's humerus. Crying out in pain or anger, it was difficult to tell, the man lunged at Cava as her heart raced faster.

"Hey, Cava, toss me the pen!" Ward called, holding his hands in the air. Sidestepping the guard that was continuing to grab at her, she yanked the pen from her pocket and tossed it to Ward.

"Okay, you guys are almost there," Skye said over the radio. "Ward, there're no more guards on the way. It's a straight shot to paradise!"

Ward rolled his eyes, jogging down the hall of Cavari's headquarters in search of the notorious terrorist's office. For a terrorist, he was pretty high-class, and actually, he preferred to threaten rather than act.

But threats sometimes paid off, as Ward knew, so he kicked open the door to Cavari's office and let himself in.

"Cavari's not in his office," Skye reported urgently.

"Yeah," Ward nodded with a breathy laugh as he looked around the office empty but for a desk and a few filing cabinets. "Got that info a little late in the game."

Cava arrived, heart pounding, but she wasn't at her peak. Ward turned to her for a second, ignoring Skye's sassy reply. "You okay?" He asked her.

"Yeah," Cava nodded, leaning a hand on the wall as she tried to slow her breathing. "I'll be fine. Just need to get slowed down is all."

Ward nodded, walking up to Cavari's desk, and setting the pen down carefully beside the others. There were many kinds of papers, documents, licenses, in many different languages. Intrigued, Ward picked up a paper written in Hungarian, a language he was very fluent in, and scanned through it.

"Ward!" Cava's cry caused him to drop the paper back onto its pile and rush out into the hall. All he saw from his vantage point was a huge guard with Cava by the neck, dangling her off the ground.

"Hey! Get off her!" Ward cried, attacking the large man. "Thanks for the warning, Skye," he grunted as the man dropped Cava.

Both the guard and Ward expected Cava to slump to the ground, but that did not happen. The teen landed on her feet, rushed to the guard who now had his back turned as he swapped punches with Ward, and threw a kick at the base of his spine.

Energy buzzed throughout her body and her pupils were mere pinpricks as a result of the adrenaline electrifying her. The man cried and bent backward, Ward immediately used the opening to strike him hard in the chest. The guard tumbled backwards, but started to get up, where Cava swiftly dealt out a cruel kick to the head to knock him out.

Sunglasses broken and out cold, the guard lay stationary on the ground as Ward and Cava considered each other.

"What? Ward? Cava? What happened?" Skye asked frantically over the radio. From Fitz-Simmons ECG, both of their hearts were beating more or less normally (the more being Cava). Skye had figured out that they'd beat the rogue guard who had escaped her detection - but what had happened afterward? Did Cava attack Ward and destroy his radio? "HEY! CAVA-WARD! DO YOU READ ME-" Skye yelled into the radio frantically.

"Yeah, we read you, we read you," Ward replied. He and Cava moved from their positions and proceeded down the hall towards their exit. Cava breathed deeply, trying to slow her heart beat. Ward noticed this and started to jog, hoping to expel some of the energy build-up Cava was experiencing before it blew out or overrode her system.

Sliding around a corner, Ward smirked as he heard Skye exhale a sigh of relief, but he didn't let on his amusement - or slight enjoyment - that she had been worried about him.

"You two better get out of there in one piece," May's voice stated on their radio, "I don't want to have to come in as back-up."

Ward nodded in an unseen gesture of assurance; Cava cracked a smile at that as they ran down the hall. "No worries, Agent May. We're almost out-"

Suddenly gunshots popped in their direction from an unseen vantage point. The windows of the hall the were running down shattered around them, glass crashing to the floor.

"Duck!" Ward exclaimed, he and Cava hit the deck as the gunshots continued to spray through the now empty windows, drilling holes in the opposite wall.

"Ward, there's a whole unit thirty yards to your right!" Skye exclaimed. "I'll jam they're radio signals, see if it'll confuse them enough for you guys to get outta there!"

Ward grunted a grateful reply to Skye as he crawled over to Cava. She was curled up in a ball, covering her head with her arms. "Cava!" He cried over the still incessant spray of gunfire. "Cava, we have to move! Come on!"

The girl slowly uncurled herself. Ward expected to have to urge her along slowly, assumed she would be tentative in moving forward.

Instead, Cava uncurled herself, pupils pinpricks drowning in her irises as her heart raced at 170 beats per minute. With Ward watching her, stunned, Cava stood up to her full height, bullets flying all around her, and faced their attackers.

**I'm really flattered that I have gotten so many follows and faves on this story. I took a short break from it to write my novel. In the time between the last chapter I published and this one, I wrote 50,00 words. **

**Another thing: there is another chapter for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: At the Heart, but they are published on my blog rather than on Fanfiction. I would appreciate it if you would take a look at them. The link is on my profile. I plan to continue publishing At the Heart on my blog so that I can illustrate chapters and supply fan art of characters in the series. **

**There is already an art piece of Cava up on my blog. Visit my profile for the links! **


	5. Chapter 5

**I ended up deciding to continue publication on FF. But artwork is available on my blog so if you're a true fan, check it out! But I just love Cava! I hope you do to! **

Bullets whizzed past her ears, some grazing her arms and sending blood cascading down her limbs; some simply ripping through her clothes, but Cava was ignorant to it all. Blinded by adrenaline, she leapt out of the now-broken windows, running head on towards the group of militants.

"Hold your fire!" The leader said, and instantly the deafening spray of bullets ceased. Ward stood up and ran after her.

"Cava!" He called as he sprinted out into the field after the charging girl. "Cava what in the hell-?!"

"Halt!" The leader said, and two of his men aimed their AK-47s at Ward, firing a few bursts that ripped through his right shoulder.

"Agh!" Ward exclaimed, gripping his injured shoulder and stopping in his tracks. Cava continued to run toward the leader, tunnel vision blocking out anyone else.

The leader of the militants spread his arms out as if to receive a long-lost daughter. Cava was within three yards of him now. "Come to me, Vena Cava. Yes, I know who you are. And I can help you, you glorious soldier-" He was cut off as Cava swept her fist upward under his jaw, sending the leader flying backwards and into two of his soldiers.

The militants aimed their weapons at Cava, reluctant to shoot her now that she was identified as an important individual. But she had just knocked their commander on his ass. What to do?

Seeing Cava lay into their teammates, the two soldiers in the process of apprehending Ward turned to help their friends catch the evasive fighter. Ward took his chance, grabbing the men's heads and slamming them together.

A soldier grabbed Cava from behind, pinning her arms behind her back. Lashing out with her legs, Cava fought off the proceeding soldiers, pressing in against her in an attempt to subdue her.

She was weakening, she felt her heart slowing. Was she going to lose power completely? It was hard to know. Fitz had given her that pin, so Ward wouldn't be hurt, but that's not to say the tech was flawless. . .

Ward sent a flying kick right into the spine of one of the guards closing in on Cava, spinning around and introducing his fists to the enemies' faces with some less-than-minute satisfaction.

Cava dropped her legs at the same second that Ward knocked out the guard holding her. She slumped to the ground, her vision tunneling. Her body went completely limp as her heart stopped beating. Ward felt his own heart flutter in his chest for half a second before the pin Fitz had given her emitted a loud POP. Cava's fingers twitched slightly as the pin shocked her heart once, twice, three times. . .Cava still remained motionless on the ground.

Ward dropped to the ground beside her, holding his breath. "C'mon, Cava." He whispered.

Her eyelids fluttered open a milisecond after the fourth shock was administered, Her heartbeat rushed in her ears as Cava lay there, looking up at the sky and Ward.

"Did we do it?" She asked groggily.

"We did it," Ward stated, looking around hastily. "Now we have to go." With a groan of pain he picked her up and slung her across his shoulders. Cava felt hot blood soak from Ward's wounded shoulder into her shirt.

"You're hurt," she whispered as he ran off the headquarter's campus.

"It's not bad," Ward dismissed her, his shoulder digging into her gut as he ran.

Light fingers played over the injury for a moment. "You got hurt because of me."

"No," Ward broke through the line of trees and continued rushing onward, leaping over a small stream and skidding over wet leaves. "Don't start this."

Cava fell silent as they came upon the van, looking down at her fingers, covered in thick, dark blood.

~~##~~

Ward sucked in his breath as Simmons dabbed at his bloody shoulder. "Just a little more," she stated, discarding the ball of gauze she had been using to clean the wound and picking up a pair of tweezers. "We're going to have to operate." She said nervously, looking down at Ward with concern.

"Just. . .get it over with," Ward groaned. Fitz stood outside the lab, observing through the window barring them from the rest of the jet. Simmons glanced up and met his gaze, smiling at his sick face at the sight of Ward's wound.

"Alright, I am going to administer a general anesthetic," Simmons stated, stripping out of her blue Nitrile gloves and putting on a fresh pair before dipping the needle of a syringe into a bottle. "It will probably take, hm, thirty minutes at the most?"

Ward grunted, closing his eyes as Simmons drew the contents of the bottle up into the body of the syringe. He felt a sharp prick in his arm as she pushed the sedative into his veins. He waited for the cool numbness to win over his mind and body as he lay on the table in the middle of the lab.

Meanwhile, Fitz watched uncomfortably from outside, shifting his weight from foot to foot in hopes of keeping the contents of his stomach from finding their way up and out from his esophagus. His lunch hadn't been great to begin with, it couldn't be better the second time around. Gagging as Simmons removed a hunk of lead from Ward's shoulder, a string of tissue trailing behind it like hot cheese, Fitz glanced to his left and noticed the newly arrived Cava.

Her face was grim as she watched Simmons operate on Ward. Both of her arms were bandaged from the injuries she had suffered, but it didn't seem to be pain bothering her. She stepped up to the glass and put a hand on it, palm pressed flat against the transparent surface.

Fitz watched her curiously, noticing the tears welling up in her eyes as she watched Ward sleeping in the midst of Simmon's medical supplies. She sniffed and ran a hand over her eyes, trying not to cry in front of Fitz. But each time she rubbed a hand over her eyes a tear slid down her cheeks, unbidden but inevitable.

Swallowing with nervousness, Fitz cleared his throat. "It's not your fault, you know."

Cava sniffled in response, "But it is. He wouldn't have gotten hurt it I hadn't been there."

Struggling to justify Cava's actions for her, Fitz pressed on. "You completed the mission. You fought those guards like a real champ, you know," he turned to face her, but Cava continued to gaze through the glass at Ward and Simmons. "Hell, if it had been ME with him rather than you, we'd both have come home dead."

Cava merely shook her head, shoulders trembling. She leaned forward and rested her forehead on the glass, sobbing silently.

Fitz left her alone, unable to comfort her. He went up to the bunkroom and slid the door shut behind him, opening a notebook so that maybe he could find some comfort in calculations. If he couldn't be adequate at helping others emotionally, he could make their lives easier technologically.

~~##~~

Cava sat forlornly in the briefing room, alone at the long table. The large screen at the end of the room was blank, shut off as if to give her some semblance of privacy. There was a soft light coming in through the glass walls even though the interior lights remained off, giving her a soft, ephemeral environment to tear at herself for letting Ward get hurt.

She sat with her head hidden in her arms, plunging herself further into darkness and solitude. Cava didn't notice as Ward walked in, hovering inches inside the doorway. He was backlit so even if she had been paying attention, she couldn't see his face.

He reached a gentle hand up and felt the bandage on his shoulder, feeling a slight pain as he caressed the area. But he was told it would heal within a week. It really wasn't something that Cava should beat herself up over, he knew, but she would never be a good agent if she expected to be taken care of by others.

"Cava," his voice caused a rift to be torn through the silence Cava had established and she jerked upright in her seat.

"Ward," she choked out. Her eyes were red from crying and she wiped a hand over them in hope of hiding the fact. "I'm sorry-"

"Don't let it happen again," he said harshly, slamming his hands on the table before her. He leaned in to look right in her eyes. "That can't happen, because next time I'll wind up dead and you'll be in the hands of some corporate prez intent on using you as a pawn and a guinea pig."

Cava frowned, too surprised to react. Ward's keen glare bore right into her, his eyes met hers refusing to let her gaze drop.

"You are a soldier," Ward hissed through his teeth. "You follow MY orders at all times. You don't play the hero. You don't play the protagonist. You follow orders so you don't get killed. And if you manage to live through a mission without following my orders, then-"

Cava stood up, jamming her chair backwards. She covered her mouth with her hand in order to prevent the sob she was fighting from spilling out as she walked swiftly down the table and towards the door.

Ward straightened up and started to say something, his hard expression softening as if regretting being hard on her. As the young girl passed through the door she pushed past a stern looking May. Her senior agent's arms were folded and her eyes stared straight ahead. But May didn't mvoe to stop Cava, merely letting the girl round the corner and disappear.

In the hall outside the bunks, Skye tapped on her phone a few times with her thumb, immersed in a Twitter thread like there was no other world. Cava ran into her, bumping shoulder's with the other young woman and nearly throwing Skye off balance.

"Cava what-" Skye started to ask, interrupted as a sob escaped Cava's throat as she slipped into her bunk and slid the door shut behind her.

Back at the briefing room, May and Ward sat facing each other.

"You were hard on her," May said, her tone conversational.

"She needs to hold her own without getting her team hurt," Ward pointed out with frustration.

May met his gaze testily. "I think she learned her lesson. You've known guilt about comrades who were hurt for you as well as any of us. And now so does she."

Ward glared up at May as she stood. "She still needs to be taught."

"Of course she does," May turned around and faced him. "She has no training whatsoever. But she also needs someone she can turn to when she needs help."

Ward rose a questioning eyebrow.

"That's you, Agent Ward," May stated before turning and leaving Ward to his thoughts. He reached a hand up and felt his damaged shoulder, pain shooting out from the site of injury. He frowned and wondered just how much pain he had caused Cava.

**So yeah, haha, that's chapter five. I hope you all enjoyed it. I have to know what you think of Cava? Is she a good character? I am going to try and cme out with a new chapter every week. Pleae root for Cava and the others! **


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